Red
by Aloneinthelabyrinth
Summary: Loving him was red. Losing him was blue. Missing him was grey. Jason/Reyna Oneshot.


_**Red**_

_**Disclaimer:**_** As much as I try to pretend I own Heroes of Olympus, I don't.**

**Author's Note: Inspired by the song '**_**Red'**_**which is perfectly fitting towards Reyna and Jason's relationship. I like reviews more than Percy likes blue cookies.**

_Loving him was red._

Reyna loved autumn. The leaves vibrated with colour just before they fell and that's when Jason Grace decided they would go on a walk.

They had time to kill. They had observed the Legion's training and had about an hour of spare time before the War Games commenced. Neither of them fancied staying in the Praetor's house ambling around so Jason suggested they'd go walking. And that's what they did.

It was peaceful; there was no Octavian demanding that they were unfit praetors, nor was there any Dakota asking advice on what to do with the Fifth. Or any Lares going on about 'That's not how Caesar did it'.

Jason gripped her hand and Reyna felt electricity surging through her. Reyna knew she should be more disciplined with her emotions, especially concerning Jason. Venus had warned her that.

Jason looked at her, his eyes matched the sky perfectly and his face was the epitome of dead seriousness, "Rey, I bet I could beat you if we did a race from here to the last tree over there."

He pointed at the end tree, it looked roughly 200 metres away, an easy run, especially if you were used to running miles in full body armour.

Reyna smiled slightly, it was so typically Jason to have a mixture of serious business but being able to realise what fun is. And Reyna was one to not back down from a challenge. "Challenge accepted Grace."

She was wearing her sandals, necessary for a Praetor, and was decked in a purple toga but she slipped the sandals off and her eye was focused on the finishing line.

Jason seemed content on running in his bed sheets and sandals. _Whatever floats your boat _Reyna thought.

"On your marks," Jason started, "Get set-"

Reyna was already off.

As she was sprinting the wind made her braid trail behind her and Reyna began to laugh. After accepting the role of Praetor she never really felt free, she was piled with responsibilities and expectations that she couldn't really have a fun time.

Reyna noticed the wind was getting stronger, dangerously strong. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Jason whirl past her. If Jason was going to use the wind on his side, Reyna would use her daggers.

She grabbed the one with her belt, and prayed to the Gods that Jason's winds weren't influencing anything and aimed for his toga.

The blade left her hand and hurtled towards Jason. The blade stabbed his toga pinning him to the ground and the wind around Reyna seemed to die. Lady Fortuna was on her side.

She picked up the pace again, covering ground quickly making most of the advantage in which she had given herself. Jason had managed to remove the blade and started to run again and Reyna was almost catching up with him and then they passed the finishing tree.

Jason grinned at Reyna, his scar above his lip more visible than ever. He was breathing heavily similar to Reyna, it wasn't an easy two hundred metres, "I won."

"Barely," Reyna muttered.

Jason wrapped his arm around her shoulder, "How about a hot chocolate before the Games?"

Hot chocolate was Reyna's favourite, along with jellybeans. Jason knew that and it felt as if he was tugging Reyna's heart with strings, that he bothered to remember the little things about her. And when Reyna accepted he seemed genuinely happy.

Reyna resisted the urge to kiss him. Teenage hormones were usually frowned upon when you were a praetor.

And while they walked away to a café Reyna couldn't help but notice the warm glow inside of her, the passionate burning red.

_Losing him was blue_

They had won the war.

But Reyna failed to win Jason Grace's heart. Piper Mclean daughter of Aphrodite won that battle, and Reyna would have thought death was less painful, seeing him be happy with someone else, someone that wasn't her.

Reyna wondered whether he forgot the time when they met, when she refused to open up purely because he was a boy and he started joking around with her, and Reyna felt comfortable, the first time she had felt comfortable since Circe's island, and she hadn't been too comfortable then.

Of course life with Jason Grace wasn't just comfortable, it was wild, liberating, the amount of quest the two went on, searching for imperial gold, taking down the Trojan Monster, leading the legion to the Mount Tam and winning. And when she almost won Jason Grace's heart, she had designed the plan perfectly, but Reyna forgot one thing; boys and battles are two different things.

And now she was watching him, his arms wrapped around Piper's waist, his blue eyes, the blue eyes that Reyna loved, were gazing into Piper's eyes and not hers.

Reyna couldn't bring herself to hate Piper; she was never the spiteful type. She respected her, she had stopped the two camps from coming to a brutal ending, she had brought harmony, and she had done it selflessly. Signs of a good warrior.

People were going up to Reyna, congratulating her on her leadership skills, a variety of Greeks and Romans. And Clarisse La Rue hugged her, war god children barely showed feelings let alone hugged, but after the bloodiest war so far, it was acceptable to hug. And Reyna hugged her back.

Percy came towards her, hand and hand in Annabeth, both of them inseparable. Reyna shot them a rare smile, and Annabeth shot her a concerned look. Reyna had to shut all emotion off; she was a praetor, not a stereotypical teenage girl.

Reyna felt slightly in awe of them though she'd never admit it. They survived Tartarus, they could do anything. They offered her congratulations like the others and she returned the favour, Annabeth leant in and whispered if Reyna was okay. Reyna didn't have to be Minerva to figure out she wasn't talking about the legion's losses.

But she nodded her head. Pretending she was fine was a lot easier than explaining why she wasn't.

Out of the corner of her eye Reyna noticed Jason walking towards her. His back was still upright and his posture was perfectly Roman even after several days of nonstop monster fighting. Annabeth noticed Jason walking too. She gave one final concerned look at Reyna and walked off leaving Jason and Reyna to talk in peace.

When Reyna was standing face to face with Jason she wasn't sure what to do, did she assume her role of praetor and congratulate him for his fighting efforts? Scold his for disobeying orders? Hug him and tell him that she missed him?

Definitely not the third, she could battle a herd of hellhounds but hug the guy? No.

Jason smiled at her, his charm destroying the possible awkwardness and said, "Hey Rey."

Reyna felt her lips twitching, he had called her Rey. Reyna had assumed he had forgotten the nickname when he forgotten most of his past. Clarisse had told her that when they were planning the attack at the doors of death, and Reyna was glad she did.

"Hey," Reyna replied, letting her walls of protection fall down, as they always did when they were around Jason.

"Nice job on the battlefield today," Jason said.

Reyna's heart crashed to the pits of Tartarus, she was hoping for something else, "How about nice job of taking care of the whole legion for months while you were relaxing in Camp Half-blood?"

Jason look startled, Reyna's voice was a venomous as snakes and all the bitterness and all the loneliness she had gathered in the past few months had exploded out of her and it was a very dangerous bomb.

"You did an even better job then," Jason had managed to make his voice calm and thoughtful and Reyna felt like she was drifting in the air.

Jason pulled her in to a hug and kissed her on the cheek, but it was a friendly kiss, not the romantic one Reyna had desired over the years, put a sisterly peck and now Reyna was suffering from the aftermath of the battle for Jason's heart, the reparations.

As Jason pulled away he smiled and Reyna wondered whether Adonis could ever compete with Jason Grace. He gave her a pat on the shoulder and ventured back to Piper.

And in the meantime Reyna was trapped in a whirlwind of blue, a blue she had never known.

_Missing him was grey_

After the Giant War everything seemed to be a dull shade of grey. Everyone she met, everyplace she went to, and everything she did was grey. And Reyna was craving for that burning read streak to appear again.

Reyna was alone now. Jason was now in Camp Half-Blood and Gwen, Dakota and Bobby were all busy having lives and there was no time for them to meet Reyna.

She tried to forget Jason, she really did. She attempted to be friendly with her new colleague, Praetor Diego, who was appointed after Frank, Hazel, Percy and Jason refused the role of Praetor. Diego, son of Virtus was offered the position due to his strength in battle. Reyna would have found it admirable; he was strong and had a strong heart. But nothing.

She had faint echoes of Jason in random moments, when she was speaking in front of the legion, when she was brushing her teeth, whenever she felt like flying. And each flashback was like a dagger in the back.

It was impossible to forget him though, and part of Reyna always wanted to remember him. To cherish the times she spent with him.

On the bright side, Jason didn't attempt the 'let's be friends' like Reyna was dreading he would. Reyna guessed Annabeth or Piper, maybe even Hazel, told him that was a bad idea. Reyna agreed she would have never been able to move on. She would have been wrapped around his finger unable to escape.

Another part of Reyna craved his voice.

_Let him go Reyna González, you're better than that, _Reyna's conscience constantly reminded that inside her head.

Here she was absently picking jellybeans from the bowls in colour coded order – purple, yellow, red and so on until the bowl was clear.

Most praetors like Julius Caesar spent time on conquering, expanding and improving Rome and Reyna was testing how many jellybeans she could eat before throwing up. So far she had eaten 72. The mixture of sugar and ADHD for a demigod should have made Reyna sprint around Camp Jupiter several times, however she was a very composed demigod.

Part of her felt bitter towards Venus. If she had never been cursed by her things may have been different, Jason would still be next to her, most likely saying that the amount of sugar intake Reyna was having was bound to give her a heart attack.

But it wasn't Venus who closed emotions off towards Jason after the chat, that was all Reyna's fault, and maybe if Reyna had expressed what she felt, maybe things would have been different.

Diego walked in to the Praetor's office and looked at Reyna and the empty bowl, and gave out one long whistle, "How many did you eat?!"

Reyna applied her strictly business face on, she didn't want to go in detail about the amount of jellybeans she ate. "Yes?"

Aurum and Argentum were by her feet and even though they belonged to both praetors the metal dogs preferred Reyna. And Reyna was glad she wasn't second-best for someone, even if it was metal dogs.

"You have a visitor," was all that Diego said as he walked away.

Reyna wanted to tell Diego that any visitor could kiss her _podex. _She wasn't in the mood for any visitor and the chance that it would be Octavian was high. Admittedly he wasn't as bad as he previously was, the recent almost Civil War had deeply affected him and knocked his confidence, but he was still Octavian.

Reyna was wondering whether she could persuade Aurum and Argentum to chase the visitor off and then ask them to get more jellybeans.

Before she gave orders to let chaos break loose that's when he walked in.

He looked perfect as always. His sky blue eyes focused on a way which Reyna had only dreamed they would. He looked at Reyna trying to find a reaction behind her mask of serene and for once she exposed her true emotions.

And in that moment everything was burning red.


End file.
